The Hunt for Sunzilla

SUNZILLA IS COMING

The Thirty Third Annual Waterbury Rotary Sunflower Growing Contest known as The Hunt for Sunzilla, The Monster Sunflower will be held on Thursday, September 10, 2026 at 5 pm at the Rusty Parker Park in Waterbury. So, bring your amazing sunflowers and cheer on the many contestants for this annual event.

The contest started on Arbor Day, the first Friday in May when Waterbury Rotarians provided trees for Brookside Primary School, Crossett Brook Middle School and The Moretown Elementary School which the students help to plant as part of the celebration. Information about Arbor Day is also shared with the students. Following the celebration packets of giant sunflower seeds are provided for all the students to plant. Additional packets of seeds are also distributed to businesses around the Waterbury area. Approximately 20,000 seeds are distributed for this event annually. Since the first contest over one half a million sunflower seeds have been shared with the participants. We judge Sunflowers for the heaviest sunflower head, largest diameter sunflower head and the tallest sunflower which is dubbed, Sunzilla the Monster Sunflower. There have been winning sunflowers over 16 feet tall, sunflower heads over 24 inches in diameter and over 6 pounds in weight. Prizes include bird feeders, bird houses and sunflower seeds. Beside the Waterbury Rotary Club, other sponsors of the prizes include Evergreen Gardens, Goldenrod Design and Waterbury True Value Hardware. Bette Ann Libby has created a special banner for our contest which can be seen in the attachment. In conjunction with Sunzilla we also have: The Search for the Other Green Monster which is the longest and the heaviest zucchinis. To date, the biggest Zucchini that has been measured weighed about 54 pounds.

Beside the judging of the sunflowers, we also hold an almost Olympic athletic event for kids twelve and younger. This is a sunflower seed spitting contest for both distance and accuracy. If you have any questions contact John Malter at 802-244-7373.